Disclosure Details

Driving offences - 579/16

Provision of information held by Northumbria Police made under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the 'Act')

Thank you for your e mail dated 6 May 2016 in which you made a request for access to certain information which may be held by Northumbria Police.

As you may be aware the purpose of the Act is to allow a general right of access to information held at the time of a request, by a Public Authority (including the Police), subject to certain limitations and exemptions.

You asked:

Could you please provide the following information on anti-social driving offences as defined in section 59 of the Police Reform Act 2002 in each of the following periods (2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 to date).

If responding to question three will result in the 18 hour statutory limit being exceeded please disregard and simply answer questions one and two:

1. How many fixed penalty notices has your police authority handed out for anti-social driving offences under Section 59 of the Police Reform Act 2002 in each of the following periods, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 to date?

2. What was the overall value of the fixed penalty notices handed out by your police authority for anti-social driving offences under Section 59 of the Police Reform Act 2002 in each of the following periods, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 to date?

3. If held, please provide a list of the specific anti-social driving offences for which your police authority handed out fixed penalty notices in each of the following periods, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 to date if available?

We have now had the opportunity to fully consider your request and I provide a response for your attention.

Following receipt of your request, searches were conducted with the Fixed Penalty Unit of Northumbria Police. I can confirm that the information you have requested is held by Northumbria Police.

You should note that we have provided as much information as we are able to without engaging S12, which would be fully applicable at point 2 and point 3, and therefore applicable to your whole request.

Rather than denying your request we have responded as below, in the spirit of the Act, which provides you with most of the information requested.

1. The number of offences which have been identified and processed through the Fixed Penalty Unit per year is as follows:

2013 = 16,

2014 = 67,

2015 = 178,

2016 = 105.

2. 2. If all 366 notices had been paid this would total £36,600, however some of these cases may have been dealt with by means of a Court Hearing or offer to attend a Driver Improvement Course or in some cases notices may have been cancelled or fine registered. To provide a definitive figure per year, would require each individual record to be interrogated to establish what course of action was taken which is not achievable within the permitted time constraints, and therefore S12 would be fully applicable

3. The anti-social driving offences would be for Careless Driving and Inconsiderate Driving. Offences per year would require each individual record to be interrogated to establish which specific offences were relevant, which is not achievable within the permitted time constraints, and therefore S12 would be fully applicable.

Due to the different methods of recording information across 43 forces, a specific response from one constabulary should not be seen as an indication of what information could be supplied (within cost) by another. Systems used for recording these figures are not generic, nor are the procedures used locally in capturing the data. For this reason responses between forces may differ, and should not be used for comparative purposes.

The information we have supplied to you is likely to contain intellectual property rights of Northumbria Police. Your use of the information must be strictly in accordance with the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 (as amended) or such other applicable legislation. In particular, you must not re-use this information for any commercial purpose.